Mission Kids in Montgomery County celebrated its fourth year as a resource for families and children who are abused.

“The story of Mission Kids started with a child who was terribly abused by family members,” Executive Director Abbie Newman said.

Newman explained that prior to Mission Kids, the experience for child abuse victims in the legal system was often a bad one and needed a change.

“As a victim’s mother said, ‘What happened to my child is bad but your system is even worse,’” she said.

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That victim was present at the ceremony and gave a speech on the importance of Mission Kids and similar organizations.

“It’s such a beautiful place that is helping so many children,” said abuse survivor and filmmaker Sasha Joseph Neulinger.

Neulinger, 24, formerly of Lower Merion but now living in Montana, was abused by three people in his family and told his parents about the abuse when he was 7 years old.

“When I told my parents I thought the nightmare was going to be over, but really the hard part was just beginning,” Neulinger said. “When I was sexually abused, my life changed. I was afraid of everything and everyone.”

Neulinger explained that the beginning of his long journey consisted of interviews with strangers, doctors, detectives and psychologists, all of whom wanted to know in vivid detail how he was abused.

“I am so blessed that I had an incredible support system to help me heal, but for all of the children that don’t have the support that I had, Mission Kids has to be there,” he said.

Neulinger went on to say that child advocacy centers are the way for a better future.

“They find the courage to explain to adults what that abuse was like. Their interviews are recorded and a healing plan is created for those kids. This is the first huge step towards healing our children and fixing the issues.”

After everyone spoke, Neulinger said he hopes catching the problem early will prevent further abuse from happening in the future.

“The only difference between my abusers and myself is that I got help,” Neulinger said explaining that his abusers were also sexually abused when they were younger.

“I was there with him and his family when he was a little boy and saw how harrowing the system was,” said Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Ferman, who helped prosecute the three adults who abused Neulinger.

“It was because of him I was driven to open a child advocacy center,” Ferman said.

Bucks County District Attorney David Heckler was thankful Montgomery County had an advocacy center for children and explained why the other counties in Pennsylvania needed one.

“As a judge, I asked 40 potential jurors for an abuse case if they had any kind of experience in this and nearly all of them raised their hands,” Heckler said.

Heckler commended Ferman and the people of Montgomery County for creating Mission Kids and said there should be more organizations like it in the state.

County Commissioner Josh Shapiro agreed.

“Our work to get Mission Kids up and running was phase one. Now we’re ready for phase two: the responsibility of all Pennsylvania residents to recognize the need for child advocacy centers,” Shapiro said.

While many would like to see more child advocacy centers to open up in Pennsylvania, funding is a large issue.

“We can’t even get a few million dollars, even though that money has been identified as sitting idle,” Heckler said.

Neulinger, who is currently working on a film about his experience as a survivor of sexual abuse, said he would one day like to see a child advocacy center within an hour and a half drive from every child in America.

“If they go out into the world as beautiful adults, they’re starting to shift all of the pain and we open ourselves up to a beautiful future. Hopefully, we can continue to grow, but it starts right here in Pennsylvania with Mission Kids,” Neulinger said.

In their four years of service, Mission Kids has provided service to 1,450 children in Montgomery County and they expect to be providing services to 450 children in 2013.

Ferman along with other members of Mission Kids asked the media not to reveal the location of the center for the safety of the families that come in for help.